Computer question for ya

[dunetrooper]

I'm just wondering, I'm thinking of upgrading my computer and have found some awesome deals at my wifes work. 300gb hard drive for $100 bucks, 1gb ram for $39, and some other goodies. But I need to know one thing.

Can somebody please tell me how exactly to find out how much ram my computer can support. I've got currently a chip that's 512mb and I'm wondering if how I can tell if my motherboard can support the gig in one slot. Only cause her store has a pretty shitty return policy and won't even trade it if it doesn't work with your comp.

I appreciate the help. Thanks.

[frenchfrog]

Check in the motherboard manual, all RAM specifications should be there. If you lost it, some are available on the manufacturer web site.

[alphager]

If you have no idea what is inside your computer, use a tool like everest to get the info.

[dunetrooper]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately I got the comp from totally awesome computers and they didn't include any manuals. I can't even see a brand or anything on the motherboard.

Alphager do you happen to have a link to a download site for that? I don't exactly think it'll come up right in a google search .

<edit> I stand corrected... it was the first thing on the google list.

<edit #2> Well downloaded it but can anyone explain where I need to look? Not all that technically savvy so... I found something that shows the chipset of the motherboard but nothing telling me the max on memory or brand of motherboard. Any tips?

[frenchfrog]

For the motherboard type check when the computer boot, sometimes it's written on top of the first screen with bios infos.

[dunetrooper]

HA HA!! I got it!

Thanks for all the help, took a little digging. Your answer helped a lot sylph-ds found the name, did a google, and finally found it. It supports up to 2gb per slot. YAY!

Thanks again.

[TrueADM]

nuhnuhnuhnuh mine accepts 4GB a slot, so that's 16GB in total! YAY! THAT'S LIKE €1500 WORTH OF RAM

Your processor wouldn't be able to use more than 4GB unless it was natively operated at 64-bit.

[KingAl]

I know that the ordinary windows OS is a 32-bit platform, unless you use XP 64 bit. I also know that Athlon-64 processors are able to execute 32 and 64 bit programs etc, but that Intel processors are either 32 or 64 bit, never supporting both.

Also, I know that 32-bit XP only supports 2 GB of RAM, and that Vista will support the max for current 64-bit processors, which I believe is 16GB.

Linux, I have no clue about, particularly considering all the different strains.

And is all this relevant? I really don't know.

[frenchfrog]

hmmm, I think you are all doofus

[dunetrooper]

nuhnuhnuhnuh mine accepts 4GB a slot, so that's 16GB in total! YAY! THAT'S LIKE €1500 WORTH OF RAM

You shut up... This is coming from someone that was raised on a 333mhz processor, 32mb ram, 4.03gb hard drive, a shitty video card and the built in sound card on a $50 emachines.

Now with my new comp I can actually upgrade

[Spectere]

Your processor wouldn't be able to use more than 4GB unless it was natively operated at 64-bit.

Not exactly.

i686 (Pentium Pro and beyond) processors support something called Physical Address Extension (or PAE), which allows them to address up to 64GB of RAM despite being 32-bit processors. This features depends on OS support as much as architecture support.

You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

You shut up... This is coming from someone that was raised on a 333mhz processor, 32mb ram, 4.03gb hard drive, a shitty video card and the built in sound card on a $50 emachines.

Your CPU probably has more L1 cache than my first computer had stock system RAM.

[frenchfrog]

You shut up... This is coming from someone that was raised on a 333mhz processor, 32mb ram, 4.03gb hard drive, a shitty video card and the built in sound card on a $50 emachines.

Your CPU probably has more L1 cache than my first computer had stock system RAM.

I'm saved, my Commodore 64 had more RAM than his 333Mhz PII 32kb L1 Cache

[TrueADM]

Your processor wouldn't be able to use more than 4GB unless it was natively operated at 64-bit.

Not exactly.

i686 (Pentium Pro and beyond) processors support something called Physical Address Extension (or PAE), which allows them to address up to 64GB of RAM despite being 32-bit processors. This features depends on OS support as much as architecture support.

You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

I know about PAE, but it's nothing compared to natively operating a processor at it's designed capacity. The only Windows products that can actually use PAE are Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000.

Also PAE is highly ineffective for performance (limited DDR/DDR2 memory modules are actually offically supported) and extremely instable with third-party drivers.

[doormat]

My Cosmac ELF had 4k of RAM. 4K!

I upgraded, you see...

[Stewsburntmonkey]

Err, either I'm a total doofus, or most processors have been opperating at 64-bit since like, 1998.

Correction: Most processors that have been released after like 1998 have been operating at 64-bit.

But I'm thinking I'm being a total doofus.

Yes you are. 64-bit consumer processors have only been available for the last few years. AMD was the first major producer to introduce a consumer 64bit x86 chip in 2003 and it took Intel until just recently to produce 64-bit consumer chips. Intel released the 64-bit G5 (Mac) in 2003.